Maybe this is silly, but my pet peeve for this site is players who score zero on purpose. If I don't like a quiz, I just opt out of it by clicking the Back button. Does anyone know why some players score zero on purpose? Thanks, Robyn

We've been fighting that pretty much since the beginning of Quizzyland, unfortunately.

What we've decided is that it's some kind of attempt to get the "Most Games Played" score up, so the person's name appears higher on the list.

What is baffling, though, is why someone would want to do this. So, their name is on that list. Everyone knows how they got it there - by zeroing out in as many games as possible. It's all a very stupid thing to do. These people have gained a reputation of doing it - so, when anyone sees their name anywhere, it's automatically associated with getting a lot of zeros on quizzes. These people can't ever actually take a quiz and get recognition for it, because their names have already become associated with lots of zeros. Almost a "boy who cried wolf" thing, because no one believes their score when they actually take a quiz for real.

People have some strange habits sometimes.

Is it in fact possible to tell whether a score of zero is deliberate or not (unless you're actually sitting by or standing over the person taking the quiz)?

LOL! Blooms has a good point. Someone may really not know any of the answers but may have given it their best shot. I know I've scored low on some quizzes. Doesn't mean I was trying to - I just didn't do well on them!

There are, we've noticed, several people who turn up on just about every quiz as having a score of zero, though. And, those are deliberate. You can usually tell who is doing it on purpose and who just didn't know the subject matter. If JohnDoe gets a score of "0" on every quiz you look at, it's not hard to tell!

But, I'm glad Blooms brought up the fact that you may have just made a quiz that someone didn't know all the answers for. And, it's certainly fine that someone didn't know the answers - hopefully, your quiz taught them something. (This is an excellent example of why those Interesting Info boxes are so important, by the way. That's how you are able to teach your players something new.)

This isn't the same as people who score 0 right and 0 wrong is it?

I mean, I have had people on some of my quizzes score 0 right and 5 wrong, say, but how is it possible to get a score of 0 for both right and wrong? My quiz has more than 0 questions!

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: LadyCaitriona ]

Lady C, this is how that might happen (I know, because I've accidently done it myself a few times, makes me mad too because I was doing well on some quizzes.) You start taking the quiz, and about half way through you accidently hit 'enter' instead of 'tab' to get to the next question. This automatically takes you to the answers and has graded your answers and there's nothing you can do about it. I have done it accidently at the beginning of a quiz and got a nothing score for it.

Hello. I read several people's responses to my original Q. Whether the culprit is accidently pushing the Enter key or a person who wants to get his/her name high on the Taking Most Quizzes list without having to do much for that honor, I propose that these 0 Qs right and 0 Qs wrong scores be simply thrown out. How often does someone who's trying get NONE correct? My problem with this is that it skews the difficulty level of the quizzes (doesn't it?) Also--and this may be the silly part--it seems disrespectful to the quiz maker. After all, he or she worked fairly hard to create this quiz. Isn't it sorta like spitting in the quizmaker's eye to get a zero score on purpose? I mean, if you think a quiz is dreadful, you can always just opt out or try your best and then give it a bad rating.

[ 01-22-2002: Message edited by: robynraymer ]

I agree with robyn, if you don't like the look of a quiz, or if it turns out to be on a different subject than you were expecting (the sub-categories sometimes throw me; I like 'quotation' type quizzes, but having never seen 'Friends' know nothing about 'quotes' from that program)you can always opt out by pressing the back button. Sometimes I'll take the quiz anyway, but even guessing one can usually get at least a couple right! I do think I once scored a genuine zero on one of jazz's toughies, but I'm sure I ended up learning something from it! That's part of the fun of playing.
Having said all of that, people scoring zero deliberately had never occurred to me before. There seems very little point to it, and not much fun either. I can see that it would skew the difficulty ratings if enough people were doing it. In the end though, they are the ones who are losing out on the fun.

Here comes the Devil's Advocate traipsing up the stairs, I was just curious to see what other people thought.
I've seen a couple of people scoring a 0 on mine and I always assumed it was an error, or like Makebeleiffan's answer.
I suppose I have scored a 0 on one of Jazz's killers before, like when I couldn't spell Nietsche properly (like now), or something of that nature.
Actually, scoring a zero after having tried to answer the quizzes is pretty hard!
But some of us are gifted at this sort of thing, the next time I ever take a standardized test for math, I'll just take in some darts. Why tear my hair out trying to answer the questions?

Seriously, you raise a question that I asked, and that was, were people possibly cheating in this way? If they took the quiz as one person, then went and took it as another, it might explain it.
Ooops, sorry I mentioned that.

I find it hard to believe that people actually care about the most quizzes taken thing, do they?
I thought we were to be having fun!

It's always the same people scoring zero on all my mixed trivia quizzes. My opinion has always been that these folks are genuinely interested in trivia facts, they just don't want to do the quizzes. They immediately click to the bottom just so they can read the answers. I had no idea they might just be trying to raise some obscure FT stat of theirs. Wish we could get one of them in the forums to explain.

Out of my 18 quizzes online the o-o score happened 38 times.
I have four quizzes in the brainteasers catergory called Twisted Duos, these quizzes are spread all over the list, I myself had to serch to find them, with an average of four 0-0 scores all of them had the same three people pop up in that way. I also think the enter key instead of tab is correct too, I stopped using the tab key because I accidently pressed enter so many times.

(Sorry about all the misteaks, my brain has gas, brain fart...)

[ 01-23-2002: Message edited by: MollyGrue ]

At first, I assumed people were doing it on purpose, but then I couldn’t think of a reason why they’d do that. It makes no sense, I mean, there isn’t any humungous prize for getting on the most played list. You just get the mental satisfaction, but how can you get that if you cheated? I don’t understand it.

I've taken some quizzes where I got ridiculous scores because I absent-mindedly pressed the enter button after typing in an answer to a fill-in question. Oddly enough, it doesn’t happen when I’m taking a difficult quiz, it is always on the ones I can do well on. Anyhow, I’m glad to see that I’m not alone on this.

Unfortunately, Lanni, some people are doing it on purpose. I'm with you in that it seems like a hollow victory to have your name on the Most Played list when you know that you cheated to get there. But then, does cheating ever really make sense? You and I are coming at it from the viewpoint that cheaters never win! To someone who's doing it on purpose, they see it as making some sense!

Anyone ever noticed that sometimes cheaters go to a lot more work than they would if they didn't cheat?
I remember someone calling me up to warn me that some students had written verb conjugations on the desk beforehand. I went and sure enough they had. But I just modified the test a bit and then watched them squirm.
I don't know if this is the case here, but I still don't understand the big deal with the most quizzes.

Hi--Well, everyone who says none of this really matters is right, but it still kinda bothers me. (Guess I need to get a life, huh?) I just want to let those of you out there who are scoring zero on my quizzes on purpose (and not to find out all the info in the text boxes--couldn't really be the case on my silly quizzes) to PLEASE not do it any more. K?
Thanks, Robyn

I sometimes score zero when Im just rushing through, eager to take a peak at the interesting additional information.

Terry

Coming from an 'uncivilised' country, where your 'unmetered' ISP will 'cut you off' after 2 hours........, I can safely say that some of my low scores have come on 'the cusp' of being cut off!

(wimm..........that happened today, when I only scored 3 out of 20 on your 'Sisters' quiz, that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it!)

Are thier really people,'sad' enough to score 0 out of 0, just to bump up thier 'No. of quizzes played' quota?

Rearrange these words in a famous saying or phrase......

"Life, Get, A"

wez

Wez,

I believe you (so you didn't have a chance to rate it "excellent", did you?)

If I could something about it, I would delete your score and you could get it once more. Did you try the other Sisters quiz already?

Since you are a real music thread freak (scuse my language), you should know a lot of sisters' songs by now

wimm, my old darlin'........have you noticed what your No. of post's is?

Are you the son of Satan???????????

(I'm only sayin' this, coz I thought I might have had a chance of beating you to it)

BIG SHOUT TO WIMM'S MUM.............CHECK UNDER THE HAIR!!!!! LOL

Excellent quiz, and like I say, I would have got more if it hadn't been for freeserve 'booting' me!

I thought I knew about the 'Sisters' until I joined FT!!!!
wimm proved me wrong

(More of a Nephilim fan meself!)
Eldritch rocks!

wez
By the way............we are both on
666.........Jesus.......I'm not going to bed tonite!!!!!

[ 01-23-2002: Message edited by: wez ]

Zero on purpose--Well, I've finally heard Everything!!! Ah, well...I usually take stuff I know pretty well, or the title catches me. Jazz's quizzes-- I'll take, even it's not something I'm really sharp in, because it challenges me to think, and if I don't do super great, I learn something. Sometimes I'm surprised on what I do know when I use m brains! Gracious,I'm posting right behind wimm and wez and their 666 posts! Hand me my smelling salts-I feel faint!!

The only reason I'm posting in the double 666 posters area, ewwwww! is that I'll soon be hitting 3333 myself!
Oh my, let me try to make that on my anniversary of joining in February!

well there you have it, the whole zero story...
And I don't think that ones' difficulty rating is more adversely affected than all that as when hot shots take my quizzes and then they get an easy rating for the people coming through next. It all equals out.

I've occasionally taken a quiz and then found out it's...uh oh....math...and then backspaced, but I don't think this scores as a zero.

And as to Jazz's tough quizzes (I'm a connoisseur, I rarely take one that's rated average!) getting a one on something I know very little about, is like getting a ten on something easy for me as to satisfaction.
But I'm weird and I should get a life too.

Let's ask...

If I've got a 0-0 answers on a quiz, isn't there any way to replay it? Cause, I scored this "0 good answers-0 wrong answers" twice and I'd like to replay these quizzes, as my scores have been made by error.

So, isn't there any way to play again a quiz if I scored a 0-0 score? If it can't be done, can a moderator fix something? (as I'm not a cheater)

You can play and replay a quiz as many times as you wish. There's no limit as to how many times you can access a quiz. And, it'll tell you whether you're right or wrong on each question however many times you play the quiz.

However, you only get one shot as far as getting your score saved. If you score low (or high) the first time you play the quiz, that score is the one that is saved.

Yes, I knew that, but if I scored a 0-0?

On another hand, I'll also be asking...

If I have a quiz that went online and the first person who played it scored 2 out of 25, but that answered correctly to a hard question, and couldn't get the easier ones...?

This was the FIRST person who played the quiz, and is not someone who tries to have his or her name in the "most played games" section... *I think*